1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electric connection box mounted on an automobile or the like serving as a mobile body.
2. Related Art
Generally, various electronic equipments, including lamps (such as headlamps and tail lamps) and motors (such as a starter motor and an air-conditioner motor), are mounted on an automobile serving as a mobile body.
Junction blocks have been mounted at suitable portions of the automobile in order to supply electric power to the above various electronic equipments. Various electric circuit units for many fuses, relays and so on are integrated into the junction block.
Such a junction block includes fuses, relays, bus bars and so on, and therefore is called a fuse block or a relay box, or is generically called an electric connection box. In the present specification, the above-mentioned fuse block, relay box and junction block will be generically referred to as “electric connection box” (see, for example, JP-UM-A-6-48148 Publication).
The electric connection box, shown in JP-UM-A-6-48148 Publication, includes a box body forming the contour, a wiring board, a lower cover (serving as a cover member) attached to the box body. Electric parts, such as fuses and relays, are mounted on the box body. Connectors of a wire harness and others are fitted to the box body.
The wiring board is received within the box body, and this wiring board electrically connect the electric parts (such as the fuses and relays) respectively to terminals of the connectors of the wire harness in predetermined patterns. The lower cover, when attached to the box body, covers the connectors of the wire harness.
A harness lead-out portion for leading the wire harness to the exterior is provided at the box body or the lower cover. This harness lead-out portion is in the form of a cross-sectionally circular hole, or is formed into an annular shape. The wire harness is passed through the interior of the harness lead-out portion, and is led to the exterior of the electric connection box.
A greater variety of equipments have now been mounted on an automobile on which the above-mentioned electric connection box is to be mounted. Therefore, it is desired that the electric connection box should be more compact in size, and for example, it is proposed to make the harness lead-out portion thinner by flattening its cross-sectional shape. In this case, the harness lead-out portion is made thinner, and therefore in the electric connection box of the above conventional structure, it is difficult to pass the wire harness through the harness lead-out portion at the time of attaching the lower cover to the box body after the connectors of the wire harness are fitted to the box body. Thus, in the electric connection box of the above conventional structure, when the harness lead-out portion is made thinner so as to achieve the compact design, the cover member (such as the lower cover) can not be easily attached to the box body, and it is thought that the assembling operation becomes difficult.